This invention relates generally to a spring shackle assembly and more particularly to a spring shackle assembly in which a pair of ball studs are utilized to connect an end portion of a spring with a frame of a vehicle.
Many different types of shackle assemblies have been utilized to connect one end portion of a spring with the frame of a vehicle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,362,720 and 1,853,043 disclose shackle assemblies in which bushings having either conical or hemispherical head portions are used to mount a spring. Since the bushings of these known shackle assemblies have conical or hemispherical head portions, the force applied to a mounting bracket must necessarily have a relatively large axial or sidewise component which tends to unduly load the mounting bracket. This relatively large sidewise load component results from the fact that each of the hemispherical or conical bushing end portions is effective to apply a sidewise force to a similarly shaped bearing surface. Due to the sloping configuration of the bearing surface, the resulting force components applied to the shackle mounting brackets must of necessity have a substantial axial component.
Other known shackle mounting arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,016,757; 1,807,099; 1,767,717 and 794,289. The various shackle mounting arrangements disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patents include a plurality of parts which are assembled at the time of mounting an end portion of a spring. Of course, the assembling of these parts at the time which a spring is mounted tends to complicate the mounting of the spring. In addition, due to the use of many interconnected parts, these known spring shackle assemblies tend to have a plurality of openings through which dirt can enter between bearing surfaces. The mounting of these spring shackle assemblies is also complicated by the fact that manufacturing tolerances tend to make the interconnecting of a plurality of parts rather difficult if all of the tolerances buildup in the same direction.